Each year Operation Barnabas leaders and staff select a person to receive the Olszewski Memorial Scholarship. This person is one who has modeled servanthood through attitude and actions during our summer tour.
The award is named after Mr. and Mrs. Walter Olszewski, much beloved and respected volunteers at CE National. For over a decade they served faithfully in the CE National production area. The O’s modeled the biblical concept of servanthood, and children and young people held a special place in their hearts.
Upon Mrs. O’s departure from this earth to be with her Lord Jesus, her family endowed an annual scholarship for CE National ministries of $100 to be given in her name. With the home-going of Mr. O in 2004, the scholarship was renamed to honor both of the Olszewskis. Their family members help to determine the recipient each year. We never want our OB students to forget the impact of Mr. and Mrs. O and people like them who give of their time in order to sacrificially minister to others.
This year’s recipient of the Olszewski Memorial Scholarship was Emma Shirk, who was a part of the NorCal OB Team. Emma, a senior in high school, is the daughter of John and Amy Shirk, who serve in the inner-city of Chicago.
When asked why Emma was chosen as this year’s Olszewski recipient, here is what her leaders had to say, “From the beginning of the tour, Emma was easily the biggest servant on our team. She consistently found ways to take out the trash, help with dishes, watch someone’s kids for them, etc. She never complained – we never heard one negative thing come out of her mouth towards any teammate or situation. She was also so good about seeing people who were alone or disconnected and going to start conversations with them. We could consistently rely on her to help without being asked and she only grew in that over the course of the summer. Emma even beat us leaders at times to seeing needs and meeting them!” — from cenational.org